By: Cameron Tyo
March 17th, 2025
Note: This review will contain what some people might consider mild spoilers for The Substance
You often hear people say they want to be a better version of themselves and question what they can do to achieve this. Time and time again, you see this as one is so concerned with their looks and how others will judge them. The movie The Substance comes up with a way to answer this question through used-to-be actress Elisabeth Sparkles (Demi Moore), who is fired from her job as a fitness instructor for the TV show Pump It Up by TV director (Dennis Quaid) who is looking for a younger star to shine and improve ratings. Her firing from her job due to her age makes her self feel not worthy of life. It makes her think that she isn’t pretty, and she starts to cope negatively. This is until an unfortunate incident leads her to learn about the black market substance, which she ends up purchasing. The purpose of said Substance: to inject a serum into your skin, causing your DNA to split into two, creating a younger, hotter version of yourself.
Elisabeth ends up splitting into another version called “Sue” (Margaret Qualley). The two must sustain each other with food and switch every seven days to maintain a perfect balance, or consequences will arise. As jealousy, thoughts of unfairness, and important events cross Sue and Elisabeth’s past, rules are broken, and through body horror imagery and gore typical for your standard horror, the movie progresses at a good and steady pace.
Each scene did a great job of showing the ageism that each version of the main character had to ensue. Elisabeth saw herself fading away from existence, feeling she was getting in everyone’s way and despised by the whole world due to her older age. Everything she once had is gone, or so she believes. On the other hand, Sue has a celebratory status; her taking the role Elisabeth had as the instructor makes her eye candy, ogled by the men who all treat her with respect, which we’ve seen these exact same guys wouldn’t show to Elisabeth for obvious reasons.
There were some really good scenes nearing the climax of the film. The back and forth between Elsibaeth and Sue were exciting to witness on multiple occasions, and everything about the “New Year’s Eve celebration was beautifully tragic. Both versions of Elisabeth, who started seeing them as separate identities, have now been forced to see them as one, which they were told countless times they were throughout the movie, as the two separate versions of the main characters would sabotage each other.
I thought that the cinematography was good throughout most of the movie, and I could only imagine how long the makeup process must’ve taken taken, especially for the last part of the movie. It’s crazy to think it isn’t CGI at times.
Horror movies aren’t a genre I watch a whole lot, but the few I’ve watched have been great. The Substance does a great job at having body horror that ties into the ideas of ageism and struggling to keep up with societal standards or having mental struggles even if you do. Demi and Margaret did a great job at portraying two sides of the same person, giving a great deal of physical and emotional acting strength to their role. The rest of the cast also did well contributing to the problems that are situated in the movie.
Overall, if you enjoy horror movies with new ideas or twists on things, I suggest The Substance. It is quickly paced and more acting-heavy than dialogue if that is your thing, and if you can handle body horror and gore, you are sure to enjoy it up to the ending, while divisive is interpretive, which I enjoy.